Toronto International Film Festival

Wilby Wonderful Just Sappy Enough

By Sarah Kurchak (CHARTattack) November 16, 2008 11:29 am

Quirky dark comedies with ensemble casts are quickly becoming a Canadian cinema cliche, but Wilby Wonderful manages to feel like much more than the same old thing. Observing the trials and tribulations of a number of loosely connected islanders over the course of a day, it's sort of like a small town Magnolia with a local scandal looming, instead...

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Tarnation Is Awkward Therapy

By Sarah Kurchak (CHARTattack) November 16, 2008 11:27 am

There's one nice thing you can say about Jonathan Caouette: reportedly making Tarnation for just over $200, he's clearly resourceful. The rest, however, is up for debate. Tarnation is being heralded as an experimental film, but there's really nothing new about the collage of home movies, film clips, photos and narration or the way that they're...

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Siblings Is Acceptable Black Comedy

By Sarah Kurchak (CHARTattack) November 16, 2008 11:20 am

Although cool and somewhat funny, Siblings isn't quite as wickedly hilarious as its premise would suggest. A black comedy about a group of step-siblings that sort-of-accidentally kill their evil stepparents and have to cover it up to receive their inheritance (played with malevolent fun by Sonja Smits and Nicholas Campbell), the film pulls no...

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Saw's Gore Ain't A Masterpiece

By Sarah Kurchak (CHARTattack) November 16, 2008 11:08 am

Take Seven and add a dash of Cube. Now add lots of blood and gore. No, even more than that. Still more. The pitch for this film probably sounded a lot like that. Two men wake up in a dank and dirty cell to find themselves chained to opposite ends. There's a dead body in the middle holding a tape player and each man has a tape in his pocket. While...

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Primer Is Strictly For Nerds

By Sarah Kurchak (CHARTattack) November 16, 2008 11:01 am

When you have $7,000 to make a sci-fi thriller, you have to compensate for your lack of special effects with an intelligent and engaging story. Engineer-cum-Director/Writer/Star Shane Carruth gets it half right with Primer. With a plot that digs deeply into the ramifications of inventing a time-travel device, Primer is definitely an intelligent...

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Phil The Alien Is Silly Fun

By Sarah Kurchak (CHARTattack) November 16, 2008 10:58 am

Phil The Alien is definitely an absurd film, but it manages to play its subject matter just straight enough to keep from devolving into pure silliness. After his spaceship crashes on Earth, Phil shape shifts into human form. He soon develops a drinking problem and befriends a talking beaver. Eventually, he finds Jesus and joins a band to spread...

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Mondovino Has Spirit(s)

By Joel McConvey (CHARTattack) November 16, 2008 10:55 am

Despite its lengthy running time, Mondovino is one of the most agreeable films to come out of this year's fest. Filmmaker and sommelier Jonathan Nossiter takes his hand-held camera from Burgundy to the Napa Valley in California, profiling a variety of colourful characters from the wine world. The lovely scenery, light mood and plenitude of random...

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The Limb Salesman Too Bad To Be Good

By Sarah Kurchak (CHARTattack) November 16, 2008 10:50 am

Years from now, people might look back on The Limb Salesman as a classic so-bad-it's-good B movie in the grand tradition of Plan 9 and The Bad Seed. The concept of water as a rare delicacy will be seen as charmingly ridiculous instead of annoyingly stupid. Viewers might just chuckle at it, instead of wondering why no one's dead or the least bit...

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Kontroll Could Be Better

By Sarah Kurchak (CHARTattack) November 16, 2008 10:44 am

Big budget Hollywood films aren't the only ones that suffer from the problem of style over substance. While Kontroll has absolutely stunning cinematography (the architecture of Budapest's subway system is used to full effect here), likeable characters and a cool, throbbing techno soundtrack, the weak plot keeps it from becoming more than the sum...

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U2, Pearl Jam Films Coming To TIFF

By CHARTattack Staff (CHARTattack) July 26, 2011 11:39 am

Rock fans will have plenty to get excited about at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, which will feature documentaries about U2 and Pearl Jam.From The Sky Down, a David Guggenheim-directed (An Inconvenient Truth, It Might Get Loud) film about U2, will open TIFF on Sept. 8, marking the first time a documentary has done so. Meanwhile,...

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TIFF Review: The Legend Of Beaver Dam

By CHARTattack Staff September 16, 2010 3:13 pm

While Score has been busy stinking up the front lines and opening gala and generally giving Canadian musicals a bad name, one 12-minute short, screening before Fubar II at TIFF has been doing its part to redeem our country's reputation.The Legend Of Beaver Dam features Sean Cullen as a wonderfully mean and foul-mouthed camp counselor, and also has...

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Sadies, Karkwa, Radio Radio, Jackson Rathbone's Band Playing TIFF

By Kate Harper (CHARTattack) August 31, 2010 11:06 am

The Toronto International Film Festival takes over the city from Sept. 9 to 19, and as usual, there'll be plenty of musical events held in conjunction with it. The Sadies, Radio Radio, Karkwa, Twilight actor Jackson Rathbone's 100 Monkeys and Fefe Dobson will perform at TIFF's special Bell Lightbox Block Party on Sept. 12 to celebrate...

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I Read The News Today... For Aug. 5, 2010

By CHARTattack Staff (CHARTattack) August 5, 2010 12:57 pm

The Parkas didn't even break up a year ago, and they've already announced a reunion show. It'll take place Aug. 13 at Toronto's El Mocambo with Ben Gunning and Gospel Of Marmelade.The Promise: The Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town, a new documentary about Bruce Springsteen, will premiere at this year's Toronto...

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Jack White Mocks Kanye West At TIFF

By Kate Harper (CHARTattack) September 21, 2009 12:19 pm

Some of us now think those Kanye West "I'm gonna let you finish" jokes are getting old, but not Jack White. White interrupted a post-feature question-and-answer segment after the premiere of the new White Stripes documentary, Under Great White Northern Lights, at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, to make fun of West's...

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Neil Young: "What TIFF Performance?"

By Kate Harper (CHARTattack) September 11, 2009 12:20 pm

Neil Young says he cancelled his performance at the Toronto International Film Festival because he didn't even know it was supposed to happen. Young, who had supposedly been scheduled to attend a screening of Jonathan Demme's documentary, The Neil Young Trunk Show, next Monday, told the Toronto Star he had no idea about the performance until...

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Neil Young Cancels TIFF Appearance

By Kate Harper (CHARTattack) September 10, 2009 10:59 am

Neil Young has pulled out of his appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival. Young, who was to make an appearance at Toronto's Yonge-Dundas Square on Sept. 14 for the screening of Jonathan Demme's new documentary, The Neil Young Trunk Show, withdrew from the festival on Thursday morning, according to CBC News. It had been rumoured...

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Neil Young Coming To TIFF

By Kate Harper (CHARTattack) August 12, 2009 12:13 pm

The 2009 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is about to get even sweeter for music fans, since Neil Young and Joan Baez will both be in town to promote films at two free events in Yonge-Dundas Square. Young will appear on Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. for the North American premiere of The Neil Young Trunk Show, the Jonathan Demme-directed (The...

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White Stripes Doc Debuting At TIFF

By Bianca Marcus (CHARTattack) June 18, 2009 12:29 pm

If you missed The White Stripes on their oddball 2007 cross-Canada tour, you'll be able to see footage of the entire tour this September. The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights, the documentary of the tour, will premiere it at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. The doc chronicles the band's performances in each...

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